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I recently came across another handy solution to prevent jaw-racking when clamping a workpiece on the side of a vise. Most parallel vises tend to rack in such scenarios, but there are situations [...]

Before the advent of magnetic-based LED lights, many of us used flexible gooseneck lamps with an incandescent bulb as auxiliary lights on our drill presses and band saws. These lamps were usually [...]

Tool: Bear Crawl “Papa Bear” Mobile Base T28923 Shop Now   Manufacturer: Grizzly MSRP: $93.95 Being able to move heavy machinery in my tiny garage shop has been a game-changer [...]

Turn trash into treasure. I love hard cheeses and hard-crust bread. Although my cheese-making skills are limited and my baking talent is only admired in our household and among close friends, I [...]

Last week I showed how to modify — using only two copper shims — a tap wrench handle and turn it into a high torque handle to drive augers. This week I will show how to improve this wrench even [...]

If you like working with hand tools and enjoy timber framing, bushcraft, and other off-grid activities, your typical drilling device is a hand brace.  Since most modern hand braces have limited [...]

Until recently, my go-to glue-spreading tool for small joints was always a cheap nickel-plated steel brush with natural bristols. I still use these brushes, but ever since I discovered the [...]

After roughly shaping the awl’s handle (read the first part of the story here) on the bandsaw, I clamped it inside my Pattern Maker’s Carving Vise and began shaping the neck. This vise is [...]

It is fun to make a tool for your own use. When that tool becomes one of the handiest tools in the shop, you’ll be delighted that you took up that challenge. On the many occasions you hold it in [...]

The awl is one of the most useful tools in woodworking and perhaps the most basic of them all. Awls help to initiate indentations into which screws, nails, and drill bits will bore. We use them [...]

One of the first things that many people notice when advancing the blade of a Preston/Record style shoulder plane (today’s Clifton and Lie Nielsen planes are based on that design) is a scratching [...]

A few years ago, my friend Cambell Albritton gifted me with a small Clifton #410 shoulder plane that he no longer needed. The plane was still in its original box but unfortunately developed a few [...]